For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Doppelganger: Lesser Monstrosityfrom the Dungeons and Dragons: Tomb of Annihilation set.

*Note*

There are contradictory and conflicting rulings on WORF in regards to how this character card is supposed to work. I’ve decided to put an article out showing how I believe the card should be ruled. Please, check with your TO before any event to see how they’re ruling it. This is not how a ruling should be handled for any competitive game. There should be a definitive and unquestionable ruling for any effect or card that causes confusion. WizKids and WORF are falling short in this area and have since the game began.

Ruling – Ability

“When fielded, you may select a target character die you control. If you do, your Doppelganger character dice become copies of that target character die. (The copy has all of the names, subtitles, affiliations, abilities, and stats of the original in place of its own.) They remain copies until another character die is selected or you no longer have any active Doppelganger character dice.“

The first part of Doppelganger’s ability is a When Fielded ability. A When Fielded ability will trigger when the character’s die is fielded by either paying the fielding cost and moving it from your Reserve Pool to the Field Zone, or by using an ability that instructs you to ‘field’ the character die. Abilities that move, swap, or place dice will not trigger a When Fielded ability.

Doppelganger’s When Fielded ability is not a mandatory ability. It says that when you field a Doppelganger die, you ‘may’ select a target character die that you control. You are not required to activate this ability when it’s triggered.

The second part of Doppelganger’s ability is a While Active type of ability. It doesn’t say ‘While Doppelganger is active’ on the card, but the ability works the same way as a While Active ability. The ability states that all of your Doppelganger dice will remain copies of the target die as long as you have a Doppelganger active in the Field Zone, or until you select a different target. The only way to select another target character die is to field another Doppelganger die and select another of your character dice to be the target.

Doppelganger will copy and replace its own name, subtitle, affiliations, and stats with the corresponding text of the copied die’s card. Doppelganger character dice retain their original text and abilities as well as any additional text or abilities in the copied die’s text box on its card. If you copy a die that has text that’s being ignored, your copy would not have any text either. If the text of the original is ignored after Doppelganger copies it, the copies will retain the text.

If Doppelganger is fielded and copies the text of a character with a When Fielded ability, it will not trigger that same turn. This is because the Doppelganger is already in the field when it copies that character’s ability. Any Doppelganger dice fielded after the first one will be able to use the When Fielded ability.

When Doppelganger copies another die, it copies the fielding cost as well. You will not need to pay the new fielding cost for the first Doppelganger die, because the Doppelganger die is already in the field when it copies the stats. Any copied dice that you field after the first would reference the new fielding cost.

After Doppelganger has copied a die, you refer to it’s printed purchase cost and energy requirement to purchase more Doppelganger character dice.

Doppelganger will retain all three of its Mask energy faces. Copying a die does not change the energy faces of a die.

Note – Doppelganger from the Dungeons and Dragons set can not be on the same team as Doppelganger from the Maximum Carnage Team Pack. Even though these two characters are not remotely close to be being the same character (and in different IPs), their names on their cards are identical. Based on team building rules, you can not have two character cards with the same name on one team.

WORF Specifics

So, now that the easy part is out of the way, let’s take a look at some more specific questions and the way they were addressed on WORF (WizKids Official Rules Forum). I’ll then give my input on whether or not I agree and how they should be ruled if I disagree with them. All of these are taken from the rulings listed below in the Official Sources section of my article.

Stats Question from the Guide: If Doppelganger: Lesser Monstrosity is fielded on its own level 3 face, and targets a level 2 Wolverine: Formerly Weapon Ten character die, does it take the stats of a level 3 Wolverine? If so, the stats will change if I spin the Doppelganger up, or down?WORF Answer: Your Doppelganger would use its own level to reference the level displayed on the card of the die it is copying. As your Doppelganger die spins up or down, it continues to reference back to the card of the die it is copying. If the die it is copying changes, all Doppelganger dice in your Field Zone immediately reference the die stats of the new die (including burst symbols).Stats Question from Doppelganger Post: If I field a level 1 Doppelganger and copy a level 3 character die, then I field a level 3 Doppelganger, which level’s stats do my Doppelganger dice have (and what level are they considered)?WORF Answer 2: The level 1 Doppelganger die would have the stats of a level 1 Gold Dragon, and the level 3 Doppelganger die would have the stats of a level 3 Gold Dragon. A Doppelganger die copying a Sidekick die would only have level 1 stats at all times, but could still spin up and down.Morph Stats Question from the Guide: I have a Morph: Kevin Sidney character die in the field on a burst face. I field a White Tiger: Mystical Amulet character die on Level 3 (4A,5D) and sacrifice a sidekick so she becomes 5A, 6D with Overcrush. Which stats (and abilities) does Morph end up copying?Morph text for reference:Whenever a non-Sidekick character die is fielded, Morph becomes a copy of that character die but retains this ability (until end of turn).WORF Answer: Your Morph would have 4 A, 5 D, and White Tiger’s “when fielded” ability, but it would not have Overcrush.WORF Blanket Answer from the Guide: When an ability copies a “character die” or “character card,” it copies the copied die’s stats, abilities, and everything else printed on the copied die’s card, such as title/name, subtitle, purchase cost, energy type, affiliation, alignment, equip ability, and Global Abilities. As to stats, this die references the card that is copying (so on level 1 it has level 1 stats of the die/card it is copying).DDK: Okay, so this one has me a bit confused. “If the die it is copying changes, all Doppelganger dice in your Field Zone immediately reference the die stats of the new die (including burst symbols).” So does that mean it gets any bonuses that the copied die gets? Not sure what they mean by this, because it doesn’t make sense unless Doppelganger was only copying the die’s face and not the levels as they state it does. If it copies bonuses, then I’m not sure how Morph is any different from Doppelganger in regards to what they copy, so why wouldn’t Morph be a 5A/6D (assuming Morph is level three as well)? Inconsistent and unclear! Two of the questions and answers are in the exact same rules post! I don’t like that WizKids has said that there is a distinct difference in terminology between Character Die and Character Card and are now throwing that out the window for copying, yet contradicting their contradiction at the same time. So how would I rule this? I guess I’ll have to back the majority ruling on this, even though I strongly disagree with it. So based off their rulings, Doppelganger and Morph would copy the die’s card which includes dice levels. I disagree with copying bonuses applied to the die being copied and I would rule that any bonuses applied before or after copying will not be copied (because you’re copying the card, not the die and bonuses are applied to dice in most cases).

Swarm Question from the Guide: If I copy a character die with Swarm, do Doppelganger: Lesser Monstrosity dice drawn from my bag now have Swarm?WORF Answer: Yes, but the dice in your bag would only trigger Doppelganger’s Swarm. So Kobold and Doppelganger could each trigger Swarm off of their own dice, but not off of each other’s. The rationale is that if each of these character dice had the same “While active,” ability, you would get 2 copies of it. Thus, for the sake of Swarm, they shouldn’t count one another.Swarm Question from Doppelganger Post: If I have an active character with Swarm and I copy that die with a Doppelganger, do other Doppelganger dice Swarm?WORF Answer: If Doppelganger copies a die with Swarm, even though it has the names, subtitles, affiliations, abilities, and stats of the original die in place of its own, it doesn’t work with Swarm, since it’s ultimately not a copy of that die.DDK: Wait… what?! So this is a complete contradiction. How can one post say that it works and another post say that it doesn’t? Well, folks, this isn’t the first time this has happened and won’t be the last. At least the last ‘accident’ had years between the posts. This was literally a month apart and only five posts apart. Come on WORF! Get it together! I was listening to Double Burst as they discussed these rulings and I agree with them on most of what they said – especially this. This is ridiculous and unacceptable. “If Doppelganger copies a die… …it’s ultimately not a copy of that die.” Folks, that’s the first part and last part of the exact same sentence. There is no basis for the second ruling. It sounds like someone that doesn’t understand the game at all wrote that ruling. I mean, sorry if I hurt your feelings, WORF person (because I’m confident there’s only one person on it), but this is garbage. If a Doppelganger is copying a Kobold with Swarm, it has its own Swarm. They won’t Swarm off each other, but they Swarm off their own dice. It would work the same way as a Kobold and a Goblin. They don’t Swarm off each other, only their own dice. Doppelganger, which is basically Kobold(b) that copied Kobold(a), has the Swarm keyword. If I pull a Doppelganger die, which is now Kobold(b), I will get a Swarm trigger. Doppelganger dice are copies in all zones/areas, not just the Field Zone (so long as you keep that one Doppelganger in the Field Zone). My official stance is that Doppelganger will Swarm off itself if it has the Keyword – and that’s how it’ll be ruled locally until WORF comes up with a REALLY good reason as to why I’m wrong.

Sidekick Question from Doppelganger Post: If I copy a sidekick die with Doppelganger, can I use Professor X Global to field another Doppelganger die from my used pile?Global for Reference:Global: Pay mask. Once per turn, field target Sidekick die in your Used Pile.WORF Answer: Doppelganger can copy a Sidekick die, but doesn’t work with Professor X Global (either, both flavors are great). Doppelganger is treated as if it’s a die with the name “Sidekick” and not a die that is a Sidekick Die for the rules of the game.DDK: I fully agree with this ruling. Sidekick is not really a ‘name’, it’s a type of die. From page six of the Superman Wonder Woman Rulebook: Sidekick Dice are special dice that each player begins the game with. They can provide any of the energy types, or Wild energy. They’re called Sidekick Dice because of their character face (which displays fielding cost, attack, and defense values). When in the Field Zone as a character die, they can be targeted just like character dice. Unlike Character Dice, Sidekick Dice don’t count as Character Dice in other places. Ally is a keyword that says: Character dice with the Ally ability count as Sidekicks while in the Field Zone in addition to their other designations. They don’t count as Sidekick Dice while in the bag, Prep Area, Used Pile, or anywhere else. If Doppelganger is copying a Sidekick, it’s copying it in name only, not dice type. If Doppelganger is copying a Sidekick die, it’s doesn’t gain the Ally keyword. It would need to copy a die that’s already got the Ally keyword, and even then, it’s still not a Sidekick die unless it’s in the Field Zone. All of this reinforces this ruling and so I’m completely behind WORF on this one. It doesn’t even seem like the same person that wrote this ruling, wrote the first ruling from the Doppelganger post.

Die Name Question from Doppelganger Post: If I copy a dragon die with Doppelganger, can I use Ring of Winter to move another Doppelganger die from my Used Pile to the Field Zone?WORF Answer: Assuming Doppelganger copies Gold Dragon, it would count as a Dragon for Ring of Winter, since it has the name.DDK: This ruling is in line with how Doppelganger works. Doppelganger copies the name in place of its own name. So if it copied a Gold Dragon, then it would also be a Gold Dragon. If you look up the ruling about Dragons from a long, long time ago, then it supports the ruling for this as well.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Doppelganger is a Mask type character card.
~ It has the Monster affiliation and the Neutral Alignment.
~ It has a Max Dice of four.
~ This card is a Common and is #24 of 136.

Opinion

I already know that there is a lot of disagreement as to how this card is supposed to work and I know there are likely going to be lots of comments about how I’m wrong. But let me explain this – this is my interpretation and my opinion on how the card should work or what rulings are most accurate or should be followed. Your opinion may be different, and that’s fine. I rarely speak out against WizKids, unless they’re just blatantly wrong. There have been a few too many of those instances lately and we won’t go into all that here.

As for Doppelganger, I’m not a fan of the card anyway – even if it’s super clear and easy to understand. I’m not a fan of copying dice or copying cards. I think it’s a mechanic that muddles any game and causes too much confusion when not done properly. But if you’re going to use Doppelganger, he’s a versatile in that you can use him to copy anything you need that’s already on your team and in the Field. He’s a great way to get an additional Swarm dude or more of your win condition. Use him if you must, but always check with your TO in advance for their ruling. And TO’s – Don’t worry about getting this ruling ‘wrong’. You’re the TO and your ruling stands until you find out different from WORF.

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on? Is there a combo that seems too good to be true? Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

* Note – This is not a ‘How to Play’ or tutorial type article. This is a review of the game components and brief review of game play.

Jungle Joust takes players through the roller coaster world of underground gambling. Designers Adrian Adamescu and Daryl Andrews have teamed up again to bring to life the fantasy world of Rhino Riding Jousting. 2-6 Players will place bets on different aspects of the two competing Jousters. Players will play cards to move either Jouster and grant special boosts that may help or hurt competing Jousters. Control the market and bet wisely and you may walk away the richest in all the land.

This is a unique and fun game with a style that might not fit every group.

Rules

I have yet to read an IDW Games rule book that was reader friendly. I read this rule book five or six times before playing the game and none of the scoring made any sense to me or the other players until we played our first game. The rule book isn’t wrong or misleading – it just doesn’t make sense until you play the game. Rule books from IDW are the only ones I’ve ever had this issue with.

The rule book is accurate, but confusing until you do a play through or a mock up game. I highly suggest doing a mock up game with your self before breaking this game out for your group. The confusion could lead to lots of frustration and give players a distaste for the game before you ever play.

Components

The board seems to be your average quality card board game board. The colors are bright and images are clear, for the most part. The bonus favors that are marked on the board are easy to forget or accidentally skip over because of the artwork on the board around them.

The jousters and the fence are the same quality as any other card board punch out. Over time, these pieces could see lots of wear and tear from being assembled and disassembled multiple times. There is no way to prevent this other than being gentle with the pieces. I noticed that one of the riders has his arm printed backward on the inside of his shield. It doesn’t affect the game at all, just thought it was funny. The design is cool and the colors are bright and vibrant, making these pieces the highlight of the game.

The game includes a deck of cards with special symbols on the bottom of the card. This is how you determine certain scores for the wagering aspects of the game. The symbols are easy to read and the colors are bold and bright. The artwork is cool, but doesn’t affect game play at all. The cards use standard size sleeves and you don’t need to see the back of the card for any relevant game play, so solid color backs would be fine on your sleeves.

There are sixteen favor tokens, eight red and eight black. These are wooden tokens painted to match the two riders. These get handled quite a bit during the game and I’m glad they’re wood and not card board.

There are six allegiance tokens made from standard quality punch out card board. They are double sided and the designs are crisp and the colors are bold. These get handled more than the favor tokens so they could see some wear and tear over time.

The betting chits are standard punch out card board pieces that can send your gaming group into a frenzy of puns. When enunciating the word ‘chit’, you may want to be sure you do it clearly – especially in a family friendly environment. If you don’t, the chit could hit the fan! (Thanks to John H. for letting me steal that one.)

The symbols on each chit represent one of the many aspects you can bet on for each rider. Each symbol and color is easy to distinguish as are the payouts in the top corner. Luckily, if you lose the bet with one of the chits, you only lose one coin and not two or three coins.

The coins and debt tokens are also standard quality punch out card board. The coin denominations are all easily distinguishable from one another because they’re all different in size and color scheme, aside from having the number printed on them as well. The debt tokens are neat and thematic to the game. If you don’t have any coins, you acquire debt tokens if you would have to pay due to losing money.

Setup & Clean Up

Setup takes some time, and so does clean up. There’s no way around it that I am aware of. The other players can assist in setup and clean up to help decrease the time, but it’s still going to take several minutes. All the components fit nicely into the game’s insert, unless the cards have sleeves on them. I still think game inserts should accommodate for sleeved cards.

Game Play

Game play really isn’t very difficult, it’s the intimidating scoring at the end that’s a bugger for some folks. I seem to have a knack for picking these type of games.

The game is played in three rounds. A round begins with the first player and continues until the riders clash, meaning their little burst symbols on the front of their bases are in the same row. Each player gets to do a few things on their turn. The first thing they MUST do is play at least one card to a rider’s tilt. After they’ve done that, they can then take one betting chit or place a bet on a rider. After they’ve chosen none, one, or both of those actions, the player then draws one card from the Tableau or two cards from the deck.

There are a couple of things that can happen during a player’s turn that can affect the game state. If a player plays a card to a rider’s tilt and there are three consecutive symbols (same color and type), they activate the favor for that symbol. When a player plays a card to a rider’s tilt, if it causes a clash, then the round is over immediately and the game advances to the scoring portion.

After the riders clash, players proceed to the scoring portion of the round. I’m not going to go into the details of scoring, because it doesn’t make a lot of sense until you do it, but I’ll touch on it a little. First you have to determine the victor. It’s not always the rider that crosses the middle line! It all comes down to the amount of favors a rider has and what tilt the favors are on. After determining the victor, there are three scoring phases: Allegiances, Betting Chits, and Card Bets. After scoring is complete, everything is collected and redistributed for the new round, except for the coins. The player with the most coins after three rounds is the winner.

Summary

I do like the game, but because of the group I play with, it’s a game that won’t see much play. I don’t mind the scoring so much, as it’s not really any more complicated than 7 Wonders. What I really don’t like is the lack of a player aid card. I had to leave the rule book out so everyone could see what order they were supposed to do things in and what all they could do on their turn. The back of the rule book has a scoring cheat sheet. But if I’m going to break out the rule book, then I’ll look in the book itself and not at the cheat sheet on the back. A small reference card or scoring aid card would be perfect.

The game is well made and plays well, so I don’t really have any complaints other than the rule book and lack of aid cards. Seriously – accurate player aid cards make a huge difference.

What the Players Said

Paul – All of the components are cool and the game play is fun. I don’t like how over complicated the scoring is.

John H. – I like the design and how simple and fun the game play is. I don’t think the scoring needs to be so complex for the game to work.

Katie R. – The pieces are cool and the 3D board is great. I like that the symbols on the cards are easy to distinguish and that the game is easy to learn and play. It feels like it’s missing something, but I can’t put my finger on it.

J. North – It’s a good game but it’s not really for me. I’d play it if the group wants to play it, but it’s not a game I’d pick to play. I do like the jousting part, but I’m not very good at betting and wagering.

Buy or Bye?

Buy – Eventually

I would most likely buy this game with every intention of playing it, but I don’t think it would get much table time. It’s still one I’d like to have for my collection, but it’s not high on the priority list at the moment.

Have strategies or tips for this game? Leave them in a comment!Have cool accessories or custom pieces? Show them off!Thanks for reading and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe for more Dice Masters, HeroClix, and Board Game related content!

Figure Information

Standard Powers/AbilitiesThey will be listed as Power: Click Number(s). This list does not include traited powers and abilities.

MovementCharge: 1-2
Hypersonic Speed: 3-6

Attack
Blades/Claws/Fangs: 1-2
Precision Strike: 3-6

Defense
Impervious: 1-2
Super Senses: 4-6 (part of a special ability)

Damage
Exploit Weakness: 1-2
Perplex: 5-6

Improved Abilities, Traits, and Special PowersBatgirl has two Traits.

Trait:
BombshellWhen Batgirl makes an attack targeting an opposing character, give her a Bombshell token. FREE: If she has two action tokens, remove two Bombshell tokens, then make a close attack.

Trait:Bloody Belle of the Bog
Steal Energy, Stealth. Batgirl starts the game on click #3. When Batgirl uses Steal Energy, she may heal past her starting line.

Special Defense Power:WWI Flying Ace: 3-6
Super Senses. When attacked by a character with [FLIGHT], modify Batgirl’s defense +3.

Opinion and Strategy

Batgirl is a fun and powerful Bombshell character. She’s always the first character I choose when putting together a 300 or 400 point Bombshell team. Zatanna is usually my second choice, and then I fill out the rest of the team around those two. Batgirl is not Indomitable, but I think she’d be a little too powerful if she was. You have to play her with caution until you get her past her starting line, because as great as Super Senses is, it doesn’t always roll! Once she reaches her second click after healing, she can charge in, and use Exploit Weakness to hit them for a whopping four damage! She also has Blades/Claws/Fangs, but with a printed damage of four, I don’t usually go with BCF unless they’ve used Outwit to get rid of her Exploit Weakness. When they try to hit her, they have to get around her Impervious on her top two clicks. She can be a very formidable opponent once she’s healed into click one or two.

I also like using her with a generic Monster team. One of my all time favorite builds for 400 points is:

I know I’m playing 15 points under, but I like the team and it plays well for me in a casual setting. I also can’t find a 15 point Monster that I like. Rat King helps me beat on their own team while Batgirl is trying to heal up into her top two clicks. Monsterex makes for a terrific, versatile distraction. Death has helped me KO characters in the past with his Trait: Harbinger of Death. It’s handy when you’re one damage shy of KO’ing a dude. He’s also got traited Blades/Claws/Fangs with Giant Reach of 2.

I’m a sucker for a full point Horta and I love Monsterex’s versatility. This team really depends on map choice and if I win, I typically choose the Horta’s home turf – Underground Cavern (ST:TOS). This map gives my Horta an advantage and also helps Batgirl and Monsterex position themselves safely. With cavern walls as cover, this team can be lethal if you’re not paying attention and Batgirl is the deadliest!

What do you think of this figure? Do you have a figure you would use in place of this one?Is there a figure you would like me to Spotlight?Leave me a comment here or on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty!

Thanks for reading and remember to like, follow, and sub for more HeroClix content!

Some exciting news broke a few days ago. It was discovered by another member of the HeroClix community that WizKids had added solicits for a new set, tentatively due out in November of this year. Much to my surprise and excitement, it was a solicit for Star Trek Away Team: The Next Generation!!!

Booster Packs

Star Trek HeroClix Away Team returns to the tabletop, this time with fan-favorite characters from the Starfleet Crew in Star Trek: The Next Generation!

Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation Booster Brick includes some of the most iconic characters and creatures from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D including Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Riker, Data, Geordi, Worf, Deanna Troi, and more are joined by classic adversaries Romulans, Klingons, Borg, and the omnipotent Q in this brand-new HeroClix 5-figure booster release!

The Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation Booster Brick has 73 new figures to collect:

18 Common figures including one Prime

18 Uncommon figures including one Prime

18 Rare figures including one Prime

13 Super Rare figures including one Prime

6 Chase figures

Wow! This set is going to have six chases instead of four, as well as Primes in each rarity! This is not a colossal set, so it’s safe to assume they’ll be the same size as previous five figure booster sets. There doesn’t appear to be a price increase, or if there is one, it’s minimal. This is good news since many were worried that WizKids would just adopt the new colossal booster price for non-colossal sets.

Primes – There are numerous opportunities for primes in this set. Every prominent character in the show would frequent the holodeck dressed in a variety of roles from history or literature. There are also characters like Lore, which is Data’s ‘twin’ of sorts. Doctor Soong was also portrayed by Brent Spiner (Data/Lore), and that presents an opportunity to see Soong as well! Picard was assimilated by the Borg for a time, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we see a Locutus of Borg figure. We might even be graced by the presence of a Thomas Riker!

I really need to know, which outfit is Deana Troi going to be wearing?! Any or all (Primes!) of the following are okay with me! She’s had loads of other outfits over the span of seven seasons and four movies, but these are my favorite and most memorable.

There are a few things that I really hope WizKids puts on character cards as their ability flavor text. For Picard, he needs Outwit and it needs to be called “Shut up, Wesley.” You can watch a clip, here. Another is for Reginald Barclay, and they need to incorporate his nickname, Lt. Broccoli, either on his card or Wesley’s card.

There is an enormous and rich universe for WizKids to pull from, so there is only speculation about what we could potentially see, until spoilers begin. There’s enough content in the Star Trek universe, as a whole, that WizKids could make a set every year for the rest of their existence! I can’t wait to see who they chose to include in this set. We do know that we’ll likely see the entire main cast crew and some very notable secondary crew. Some of the villainous characters have been confirmed in the solicits as well. We’ll be seeing Q, Gul Madred, and the Borg Queen. I imagine we’ll see generic Klingons, Romulans, Borg, and Starfleet officers in this set as well. It would be a lost opportunity to exclude them.

Starter Set

Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation Starter Set includes six of the most iconic crewmembers of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D with all-new dials! This Starter Set features Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander William T. Riker, Lt. Commander Data, Lt. Worf, Dr. Beverly Crusher, and Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge coming together to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before! Other Starfleet members, like Reginald Barclay and Ro Laren, can join with the rest of the crew of the Enterprise to take on fearsome adversaries such as Gul Madred or the Borg Queen, all four of which can be found in the Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation Booster Brick!

Starter Sets are excellent products for new players to learn and play HeroClix!

Includes everything a player needs to play HeroClix: figures, one double-sided map, Rulebook, Powers and Abilities Card (PAC), Object and Terrain tokens, Dice, and Character cards.

MSRP: $24.99

We have a confirmed roster for the starter:

Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Commander William T. Riker

Lt. Commander Data

Lt. Worf

Dr. Beverly Crusher

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge

You’ll see that Tasha Yar, Wesley Crusher, and Deanna Troi are missing from that notable list. Troi is already listed in the booster solicit, but it’s safe to assume that we’ll see Yar and Wesley in the set too, unless Denise Crosby and Wil Wheaton have something weird going on with licensing their likeness.

I think they chose a great line up for the starter. Since this is a starter, it’ll have a rulebook, PAC, dice, a double sided map, and object/terrain tokens. I’d like to see something Star Trek related on my object tokens – like a console for a heavy object and med pack for a light object. I think I’m asking for too much though, even though it’s just pictures printed on cardboard.

Dice and Token Pack

Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation Dice and Token Pack contains two (2) custom dice featuring the Starfleet icon and six (6) custom action tokens featuring images of the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D.

The Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Original Series Dice & Token Pack is a great way for players to enhance their HeroClix experience!

MSRP: $9.99

Obvious cut/paste typo in this solicit – “The Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Original Series Dice & Token Pack is a great way for players to enhance their HeroClix experience!” This solicit is definitely for TNG Dice and Tokens and not the TOS set. Now, the question is, who is going to be on these? Will we see crew or aliens?

The TOS pack had all the crew members from the starter, which was awesome! I’m hoping they do the same for TNG. If they do, these are the faces we’ll have on the tokens:

Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Commander William T. Riker

Lt. Commander Data

Lt. Worf

Dr. Beverly Crusher

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge

I’m also very curious about the dice. We had gorgeous dice from the TOS pack, so are they going to reuse those dice or make new ones?

Personally, I’d like the TNG communicator badge symbol, even if the color scheme is the same as the TOS dice.

They could even do a silhouette of the Enterprise-D, or use the standard Klingon badge symbol. As long as it’s TNG related, I don’t care what they use!

HeroClix Release Day OP Kits contain everything a retailer needs to bring HeroClix players into their store to celebrate the release of a new HeroClix set including new limited edition figures or game elements not found anywhere else! Each Release Day OP Kit ships with the new set so stores can run events on release day. Stores should schedule their HeroClix release day events in the WizKids Info Network (win.wizkids.com).

Each Release Day OP Kit includes prizes to host a release day event, with a prize for 1st place, a Fellowship award and a Flex Award (Flex Awards are used at the store’s discretion so long as the use is within the context of the WKPPLA for the expressed purpose of supporting in-store play).

Stores are not required to have a volunteer or judge present to run an event; store owners may ultimately determine how events in their store will run and how the kits are used so long as they are used to support in-store play.

RETAILERS PLEASE NOTE: Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation OP Kits are only available while supplies last!

Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation OP Kit is covered by the WizKids Promotional Product Licensing Agreement and is marked “NOT FOR RESALE.”

Exemptions are determined based on a store’s demonstrated player base size as indicated in their event history in the WizKids Information Network. If you wish to request additional OP kits, please speak with your sales representative.

Maximum 3 OP Kits per store unless store requests and receives exemption based on their WizKids Info Network history and product order history.

*Kit contents subject to change

Oh my goodness – Mark Twain himself as a prize piece! It was a great episode where time travel happened a few times and Samuel Clemens had a chance to tour the Enterprise-D. Seeing Samuel Clemens makes me believe that Guinan will be in the booster set or maybe a future LE.

I really dislike time travel shows, but the times that Star Trek incorporates it in the show are well written and feel like they have purpose, even the ‘accidental’ incidents. The only time I have ever truly enjoyed time travel content is in Star Trek.

Thoughts

I don’t think I can express just how excited I am for this set! This series was a very big part of adolescent years and this is THE dream set for me. I know several folks had their dream set with Star Trek: The Original Series, or maybe one of the other various comic related sets, but this set is something I didn’t think I’d ever see. I may love Ninja Turtles and Batman: TAS (coming soon and can’t wait!), but in my heart, I’m a Trekkie. I’m very attached to all versions of Star Trek, but TNG is special to me, as I’m sure it is to many other folks for various reasons.

Star Trek is a franchise that highlights diversity and unity and while I believe some of the series are better at representing this than others, they’re all great in their own way. I would like to see WizKids continue this trend and bring all the series to life on my HeroClix map. Not only are there TV series and movies, but there is also an animated series, novels, and comics that WizKids could use. These sets allow me to connect with players that have no interest in super heroes but like to play HeroClix because of the Star Trek characters. WizKids makes Star Trek: Attack Wing, which is another great Star Trek game, but there’s something super special about commanding an away team of your favorite characters. I want to field a team of TNG Klingons to take on Thanos or battle against a Bat-Family! They may be defeated, but they will die in glorious battle and earn their place in Sto’Vo’Kor! Qapla’!

What are you hoping to see in an upcoming set?Is your ‘dream’ set already a reality?Leave me a comment here or on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty!

Thanks for reading and remember to like, follow, and sub for more HeroClix content!

Ruling – Ability

Madame Masque’s ability is a While Active ability. A While Active ability is one that works regardless of how many of the character’s dice are in the Field Zone. While Active abilities are like a light – it’s either on, or it’s off.

You must have at least one Madame Masque character die in the Field Zone to gain the benefits of her ability. Having more than one will not affect how her ability functions.

While you have a Madame Masque die in the Field Zone, your opponent can’t use any abilities that say ‘When Fielded’. This does not apply to keywords that function like a When Fielded ability. For example:Intimidate acts like a When Fielded ability, but Madame Masque won’t stop it because the character’s ability does not say When Fielded. Reminder text in parentheses is not considered to be the character’s actual ability, only a reminder of how the ability works.

If your opponent has a Madame Masque character die in the Field Zone, and you try to borrow one of their characters (via an ability like the one on Collector: Tanaleer Tivan) with a When Fielded ability, you will not get to use that ability. When you borrow the die, it’s temporarily yours for game effects.

Madame Masque’s ability is not optional. You can’t pick and chose which ability is ignored and which isn’t.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Madame Mask is a Mask type character card.
~ She has the Villain affiliation.
~ She has a Max Dice of four.
~ This card is a Uncommon and is #59 of 124.

Opinion

I totally understand the confusion with this card, especially for newer players. I’ve gotten a few questions about her ability vs Keywords as well as the Collector question. Before they ruled on her officially, I was using the Global ruling as a basis for my ruling – which they used as well. When you use a Global on an opponent’s card, it’s not your opponent’s Global when you use it – you are the one using it. Same applies to borrowing character dice.

I’ve heard lots of argument on both sides for using Madame Masque over Wonder Woman: Reflections. There are lots of pros and cons and each player should weigh them individually for their own team and play style. Wonder Woman costs one more to purchase, but she also shuts down When Attacks abilities, like the nasty Bard and Guy Gardner. Wonder Woman has better stats, but does cost one more to field on level three. They’re both Mask characters. Madame Masque is a Villain and there are plenty of anti Villain cards. Wonder Woman has the Justice League affiliation, which really doesn’t matter in Modern Age, but you could loosely build around it in Golden Age.

Personally, I prefer Wonder Woman over Madame Masque, but each player should look at both of them and decide for themselves which they prefer. Madame Masque has her uses. She could be invaluable for a Villain only event!

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on? Is there a combo that seems too good to be true? Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look atSilver Sable: Outlawfrom the Marvel Amazing Spider-Man set.

Ruling – Ability

“When Silver Sable attacks, add a die from your bag to your Prep Area. If it is a Sidekick, Silver Sable is unblockable.“

Silver Sable’s ability is a When Attacks ability. When Attacks abilities trigger simultaneously when all attackers have been assigned. If there are multiple When Attacks abilities on the active player’s side, the active player resolves them in the order they choose.

When a Silver Sable die attacks, you take a die from your bag and place it in your Prep Area. This is not the same as drawing a die, so you do not get to refill an empty bag when using this ability. Only abilities that instruct you to drawa die will trigger a bag refill.

If the die you add to your Prep Area is a Sidekick die, the Silver Sable die that triggered that ability will be unblockable. Ally dice are only considered to be Sidekick dice while they are on a character face and in the Field Zone. If you add a die with Ally to your Prep Area with this ability, Silver Sable will not be unblockable.

Silver Sable’s ability is not optional. When each of your Silver Sable dice attack, you must add a die from your bag to your Prep Area. If you can’t, this ability does nothing. You will not take damage if you can’t add a die to your Prep Area because Bag Burn only happens during your Clear and Draw step while drawing your four dice for the turn.

Each of your Silver Sable dice that attack will trigger this ability. Each trigger of the ability will only apply to the Silver Sable die that triggered it. For example: I have two Silver Sable dice in the Field Zone. I decide to attack with both, so I assign both as attackers. Both abilities trigger simultaneously, but I resolve them individually. I add a die to my Prep Area from my bag for the first Silver Sable die. The die I added to my Prep Area is not a Sidekick, so the first Silver Sable die is still able to be blocked. I add a die to my Prep Area from my bag for the second Silver Sable die and it’s a Sidekick, so my second Silver Sable die is unblockable. My first Silver Sable die is still able to be blocked because she didn’t add a Sidekick to my Prep Area – only the second one did.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Silver Sable is a Mask type character card.
~ She has the Spider-Friends affiliation.
~ She has a Max Dice of four.
~ This card is a Common from the Starter and is #15 of 142.

Official Sources

Opinion

I know a lot of folks don’t care for the Amazing Spider-Man set, but I have loads of fun playing with cards from this set. This is one of those cards. I love using Silver Sable with The Front Line: Basic Action Card, and keeping my bag full of Sidekicks. This is a great concept to build around for casual play because it’s not super serious broken, and it’s not super difficult to set up. She’s got a little bit of higher purchase cost than I like, but with a few well placed Front Line dice with a bag loaded with Sidekicks, you could be punching someone in the face for a quite a bit of damage. She’s a 0/1/1 to field, so she’s not too high on fielding costs, and her attack is 3/4/4. When you drop two Front Line dice on her, she becomes a 9/10/10, that’s also potentially unblockable.

I recently had someone ask about attacking with multiples of her dice, and I realized that I hadn’t featured her for an article yet. I also thought that now would be a good time to feature her, because I’ve had lots of inquiries about cultivating casual-competitive scenes. This is the perfect card for that type of scene!

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on? Is there a combo that seems too good to be true? Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

* Note – This is not a ‘How to Play’ or tutorial type article. This is a review of the game components and brief review of game play.

The night has fallen and your mind is floating in the magical world of dreams. But the Dream Spirits want to have some fun tonight! They are giving their best and the dreams become strange and surreal. Become the dreamer, put on your sleeping mask and try to figure out your dream and which spirits are the Naughty ones. Become a good spirit and help the Dreamer by giving him clues about the dream before the naughty spirits mess it up. Close your eyes and dive in!

At the beginning of each round of When I Dream one player takes the role of the Dreamer and “falls asleep”, wearing a cloth mask. The other players are secretly dealt their role cards determining what kind of spirits they are “good” or “naughty” or if they are just “tricksters” changing sides as the game goes by.

The whole round lasts 120 seconds in which the spirits are drawing “Dream” cards depicting a specific element of the dream, trying to describe them to the dreamer using one word each. The dreamer can guess what the element of the Dream is at any time, placing the card to the good spirits team side if the guess was correct and in the naughty spirits pile if it was not.
At the end of the round the Dreamer and the good spirits get a point for every card in the good spirits pile, when the naughty spirits get one point for every card in the naughty spirits pile. The tricksters get points according to how well balanced the two teams were at the end of the round, gaining extra points if they managed to equally balance the two piles.

At the end of the round, the dreamer must use the words he guessed and story-tell his dream for extra points before he opens his eyes.

You can learn how to play in a few minutes and have a great laugh right from the start. Each role is challenging and entertaining giving the game more depth according to the player’s imagination, providing a wonderful experience with a unique dream every round.

This game has many working parts, but it’s still simple to play. The complexity comes with the spirit roles the players take on. The Boogeyman wants all wrong answers, the Fairy wants them all correct, and the Sandman wants a balance between wrong answers and correct answers. The catch is, nobody knows who anyone else is, including the Dreamer. The Dreamer wants to get as much correct as they can, and then recall as many elements as they can from their dream – in hopes of recalling all of the correct answers.

Rules

The rulebook is short and to the point. My only issue is that there aren’t any examples of what they consider to be correct clues and incorrect clues for the word on the card. We spent a good 30 minutes trying to understand what the rules meant by ‘no derivatives’ of the word elements. It wasn’t until we looked through the cards and found Pajamas as one of the elements and then it clicked – PJs would be a derivative. Just like Paci and Binky for Pacifier. But Doctor for Surgeon would be fine, because a surgeon is a type of doctor, but it doesn’t give away what they word is. Doctor could easily relate to nurse or medicine just as easily as it could surgeon.

But other than that bit of confusion, it was fairly easy to follow and understand and we were playing shortly after we figured out what they meant by ‘derivative’.

Components

There is an hourglass timer included with the game. It’s a plastic two minute timer with yellow sand and a blue top and bottom. It’s good that it’s not made of glass, but I don’t think we’ll use the hourglass much in future games. We would forget to watch the timer and end up running over the two minutes, or get distracted watching the timer and not hear what clues others had given. I think it would be more efficient for us to use an electronic timer on our phones, but I’m glad they included the hourglass for those that don’t allow electronics at their table.

The ‘dreamer’ or the player that’s trying to guess what the the clues mean, has a dream mask that they can wear. We would turn around in our chair instead of using the mask if we didn’t want to wear it or couldn’t wear it. The mask is definitely big enough for an adult, but a small child might have trouble keeping it in place. While I wouldn’t suggest using this as an actual sleep mask, it appears durable enough to hold up over many years of game play.

There is a small deck of 11 cards with three different types of cards in it, called the Spirit deck. These cards are shuffled and dealt out randomly to each player, except for the dreamer. These cards represent the role that each player will play for that round. These cards are shuffled and dealt out between each round and only a particular number of each card is used based on the number of players. The cards are standard quality and even though there aren’t many in the deck, I would still advise sleeving them to help prevent marks or damage.

The dream deck has 110 oversized, double sided cards that have words on the top and bottom of both sides. The artwork is amazingly gorgeous and is truly that of dreams and nightmares. It reminds me a lot of the artwork for Dixit with it’s whimsical nature. The cards are standard quality, but they don’t require near as much shuffling and handling as a regular deck of cards. I can’t recommend sleeving these because they won’t fit in the 3D Bed card holder.

The 3D Bed card holder is made of plastic and appears to be very durable. The headboard is used to cover the additional word on the card so players don’t get confused over which word is the target word. The bed isn’t a necessary piece for game play, but it keeps the cards from sliding everywhere and it’s a pleasing aesthetic for the theme of the game. If you really wanted to sleeve the dream deck, you could, but they will not fit in the bed so you wouldn’t be able to use this piece. If anyone finds a solution for this problem, feel free to leave a comment!

The bedroom board is a thick piece of cardboard with very pretty imagery on it. There isn’t a lot of interaction with the board itself, other than placing passed or wrong guesses on the Boogeyman side and correct guesses on the Fairy side. There are scoring reminders on the board as well, which is nice to have.

The scoring tokens are super cute! They’re punch out tokens that are made out of cardboard. I love that each point value has a different type of token. It makes for quick and easy totaling and sorting at the end of the game. The game does not include a bag for the tokens, but I used some small bead bags that I picked up from the store and put each different token type into it’s own bag.

Setup & Clean Up

Setup is very easy, but takes a few minutes. You shuffle the dream deck, flipping and rotating the cards as you shuffle. Then place the deck in the bed. Then you decide who will be the first dreamer and give them the mask. After that, you shuffle the selected cards for the Spirit deck and deal one to each player. You should have one left over, which gets set aside until the next round. Then you remove the top card of the dream deck and place it on the bottom of the deck. Once you begin the game, you flip the hourglass timer and rapid fire clues to the dreamer.

Clean up isn’t too much trouble either. Everything has its own place in the insert. The hardest part of clean up is sorting the point tokens and that’s not difficult at all.

Game Play

Game play is very simple. The players look at the word on the card that’s in the bed. Each player takes turns giving one word clues to the dreamer or passing if they can’t think of something. The dreamer can interrupt at any time to take a guess. If the guess is correct, the card is quickly removed and placed on the Fairy side of the bedroom. If the dreamer passes or is incorrect, the card is quickly removed and placed on the Boogeyman side of the bedroom. Players should never tell the dreamer if they guessed correctly or not. Once the two minute timer is up, the dreamer has a chance to recall their dream. They want to describe their dream based off of the words they said. For example, if they said Heart, Lumberjack, and Dress, they will make up a ‘dream’ they had with those words. “In my dream I saw a Lumberjack in a Dress that was cutting down a tree shaped like a Heart.” If the Lumberjack and Heart cards were on the Fairy side and the card they thought was a Dress and a card with the word Roof were on the Boogeyman side, the dreamer would score four points total. They score one for each of the two correct cards and two because they recalled all the correct words from their dream.

The Spirit deck is what gives the game some complexity and depth. The Fairy will always want as many correct answers as possible. The Fairy will always try to give clues that are easy to understand and relate well to the current card’s word. The Boogeyman is will always want the dreamer to guess wrong, so the Boogeyman will try to the lead the dreamer astray with vague or misleading clues. The Sandman will always strive for balance between correct answers and wrong answers. Sandman will score points almost every time, but will not score well or at all, if the balance is off too much.

After the dreamer has recalled their dream, points are calculated for each player and the game is reset for the next dreamer. The next dreamer is selected and given the mask. All the Spirit cards are collected, shuffled, and dealt out to all the players except for the dreamer again. The top card of the dream deck is removed and placed on the bottom of the deck and the timer is restarted again. Players rapid fire clues to the new dreamer just like before.

This pattern of play repeats until all players have been the dreamer one time. Once all the players have been the dreamer, the points are totaled one last time and the player with the most points is the winner.

Players can be penalized for giving clues that break the rules. Each mistake could cost them a point off their total at the end of the game.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed playing, but I believe who you play with is very important. If you’re playing with young children, it could become frustrating because they sometimes are not as fast as adults with the rapid fire type games. They also have a smaller vocabulary and may not know what some of the words are, like a Grotto. We used the clues Wet, Dark, Cave, Stalactite, Stalagmite, and Water and the dreamer was not able to get it and had to pass because time was wasting away.

I like all the components with the game, but I think players should think about tweaking the rules to better fit their play group. We were thinking of allowing two minutes per card for six cards. We haven’t tested this yet, so not sure how well it’ll work. We also thought about extending the time to five minutes instead of two. It may be more difficult to recall all the words, but it gives players longer to think about the clues.

Regardless, it’s still really fun to play and if your players don’t know what a word is, you can always set that card to the side.

What the Players Said

Paul – No comment this time. (Paul is a really nice guy and doesn’t like to say negative things. I could tell he wasn’t having much fun with this game.)

Katie – It’s a really fun game and I the card art and all the game components. The mask feels a little unnecessary because you can turn around in your chair. I think it needs to be adjustable or something too, but it’s still cute.

Olivia – It was really cute, but I wish they could’ve made the mask adjustable because it’s difficult to put on for people with lots of hair. I still like using the mask because it’s very thematic to the game.

North – I love the game and it’s a great party game for teens and adults. I think younger children (8-10, and maybe even up to 12) may have some trouble with some of the words. They can still play it, just some of the words might be above their vocabulary. The Sandman role is much more difficult to play than the Fairy or Boogeyman.

Buy or Bye?

Buy

I like this game and it’s a great party game for teens and adults. It’s not a game that I would rush out to buy, but it’s one I’ll eventually get around to purchasing. Different play groups will have different experiences, so gauge your decision on your play group!

Have strategies or tips for this game? Leave them in a comment!Have cool accessories or custom pieces? Show them off!Thanks for reading and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe for more Dice Masters, HeroClix, and Board Game related content!

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look atDragon Statue Trap: Lesser Trapfrom the Dungeons and Dragons: Tomb of Annihilation set.

Ruling – Using Action Dice

Dragon Statue Trap is a non-Basic Action Card and it’s dice are non-Basic Action Dice. If an ability or game text refers to an Action Card or an Action Die, then it could affect Dragon Statue Trap. Non-Basic Action Dice can not be purchased by an opposing player.

There are two main ways to use an action die. The first is when the die is in your Reserve Pool, you use the ability that’s on the card and then place the die Out of Play. The die will never enter the Field Zone. The second is to move the action die from the Reserve Pool to the Field Zone, but those dice can only be fielded if they have the Continuous keyword, they’re considered to be Gear or a Trap, or the ability tells you to attach that die to another die that’s in the Field Zone.

Action dice can be used during two different steps, but only on our turn. You can use an action die at any time during your Main Step, or after blockers have been assigned during the Attack Step (referred to as the Actions and Globals portion of the Attack Step).

Action dice cannot be used for no effect. This means, if you can’t legally use the ability of the action die, then you can’t use the die and it remains in your Reserve Pool until the end of your turn. If you do not use an action die, it will go into your Used Pile at the end of your turn.

Ruling – Trap Keyword

“Traps: Traps are action dice that move to the Field Zone when used, and stay there until Triggered. When the criteria of the Trap die’s Trigger is met, you must immediately send the die to your Used Pile and use its Effect.“

Each Trap has its own Trigger and Effect. A Trap is sent directly to the Used Pile when it’s triggered, and this is not optional. Once the trigger condition is met, the trap will go to the Used Pile, whether you can use the effect or not.

The Gadgeteer keyword works with Traps.

Ruling – Trigger

“Trigger: An opponent attacks you.”

The Trigger is a condition that must be met for the trap to activate. As soon as the condition is met, the trap will ‘trigger’ and go to the Used Pile. You can use the effect of the trap only when it’s triggered.

For Dragon Statue Trap, the Trigger is when an opponent attacks you. The moment an opponent finishes assigning their attackers, the Dragon Statue Trap’s trigger is met. Character dice that are attacking are all assigned at the same time, so your opponent will be able to assign all character dice they wish to attack with before your trap triggers. This means all of your opponent’s ‘When Attacks’ abilities will be able to trigger before your Dragon Statue Trap triggers. This is because they are the active player and all active player abilities trigger first.

The trigger on Dragon Statue Trap will grant you the effect before blockers are assigned.

Ruling – Effect

“Effect: You may pay X [Energy] to deal X damage to all opposing character die.”

~ I believe there is a typo on the card. Where it says ‘opposing character die‘, I believe it’s supposed to say, ‘opposing character dice‘ instead.

The Effect of a trap is what happens when the Trigger condition is met. The Effect on Dragon Statue Trap is an optional ability because it says ‘you may’.

If you choose to use the effect on your triggered Dragon Statue Trap, you can pay any amount of energy to deal that much damage to all of your opponent’s character dice. You can use any type of energy in any combination for this effect.

The opposing character dice do not need to be attacking, only active in the Field Zone.

If attacking character dice are KO’d by this effect, they are no longer attacking and you will not be able to assign blockers to them.

This effect is not a targeting effect. Characters that are protected from being targeted can be damaged by this effect.

Example

Game State
I have a Dragon Statue Trap and a Sidekick (1A/1D) in my Field Zone. I have one Bolt and one Fist energy in my Reserve Pool. My opponent has two Sidekicks (1A/1D) and character die with 2A/3D in their Field Zone. We are moving into their Attack Step.Attack Step – Assign Attackers
~ My opponent assigns their 2A/3D character and one Sidekick as their attackers.
~ My opponent does not have any When Attacks abilities.
~ My Dragon Statue Trap triggers and is sent to the Used Pile.
~ I use the Effect of my trap and spend the Bolt and Fist energy (moving them to my Used Pile), to deal two damage to all of my opponent’s character dice.
~ Their two Sidekick dice are KO’d and placed in their Prep Area. Their 2A/3D character die is still attacking, but now it can only take one more damage before it’s KO’d.Attack Step – Assign Blockers
~ I assign my Sidekick die to block the remaining attacking character die. Doing this will KO the attacker in the Assign and Resolve Damage portion of the Attack Step and my Sidekick will also be KO’d.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Dragon Statue Trap is a Shield type non-basic action card.
~ It does not have an affiliation.
~ It has a Neutral Alignment (leaf symbol near the purchase cost).
~ It has a Max Dice of four.
~ This card is a Common and is #25 of 136.

Opinion

I think the Dragon Statue Trap is incredibly useful against teams that utilize those annoying characters that can’t be targeted. And there are plenty of those pesky characters around in Golden Age and Modern Age. Raven: Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos! is the first one that comes to mind and probably the most used one. Even with her in the field, you can still damage your opponent’s Mask and Teen Titans dice because Dragon Statue Trap’s effect is not targeting them – it’s like a blanket covering their side of the field.

Dragon Statue Trap could also be extremely useful against teams that depend on rushing their opponent with lots of smaller characters, like a Bard Blitz or Guy Rush team. A well placed Dragon Statue Trap and force attack Global and they’re in a world of hurt!

One of the major down sides that I can see to this type of trap is that once it’s triggered, it’s gone until you can get it back through your bag. This leaves you vulnerable and gives your opponent a chance to build up their field if they trigger the trap at the right time. Another issue you could run into is your opponent triggering it when you don’t have any energy to use for the effect. The trap is still triggered when they attack and sent to the Used Pile – regardless if you can activate the effect or not.

Gadgeteer is a nice keyword to pair with Dragon Statue Trap. You could get your traps back much quicker with one of these type of characters. What ever you do, don’t give them Boomerang! That’s not a good idea if you want your traps in the field.

I’ve been looking at building a Trap based team, I just haven’t had the chance to put it together yet. I think it would be fun and interesting for our casual scene.

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on? Is there a combo that seems too good to be true? Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Welcome to the next installment of my HeroClix Figure Spotlight series! For this month’s article, I chose a figure that I’ve used many times over to teach new players – Hulk #106 from The Mighty Thor starter!

Figure Information

Team Ability
AVENGERS: When this character is given a MOVE action, modify speed +1.

Standard Powers/AbilitiesThey will be listed as Power: Click Number(s). This list does not include traited powers and abilities.

MovementLeap/Climb: 1-7

Attack
Super Strength: 1-2, 5-7

Defense
Invincible: 1-3
Impervious: 4-7

Damage
Exploit Weakness: 3-4

Improved Abilities, Traits, and Special PowersHulk has one Trait.

Trait:
Hulk SmashWhen Hulk moves, after resolutions he can use Quake at no cost.

Opinion and Strategy

There is something to be said for the simpler pieces. This particular piece has probably seen more play with my locals than any other individual piece. Now, this Hulk isn’t a super big meta piece, but he’s a great casual piece for all kinds of players. He’s got a nice 100 point dial, and his 50 point is okay, but there are better casual pieces for the same amount of points.

This is one of my favorite pieces to use when teaching new players. He doesn’t have a bunch of crazy abilities on him, but he has a really awesome Trait. He’s a great piece for beginners to use and learn about Traits and actions at ‘no cost’. His Leap/Climb is perfect for his Trait as well, and helps me to teach new players about Breakaway tactics.

I love that he has Invincible and Impervious because this is a great opportunity to show a new player the difference between the two – in action! His Exploit Weakness is great as well, though I wish he had it on his 50 point dial too. Super Strength is also very useful in teaching players about using Objects in a game and Knockback from an attack. Being able to knock a character back could set you up for a future Leap/Climb + Quake!

I can’t say enough good things about this particular Hulk. I like to pair him with the Iron Man from the Sidekick kit (100 points) and Hercules from The Mighty Thor starter (100 points) for a 300 point tutorial team.

Using two pieces from the same starter and a piece from the Sidekick kit has been very effective for me in introducing new players to HeroClix. They get a Sidekick set during the Sidekick event and then purchase a starter and now they have several possible team combinations for Avengers theme teams. If the Sidekick kits are no longer available, there is a Thor in the Starter that works too, but he has more special powers than I like for a teaching team. But Hulk is always the center focus for my teaching teams because he’s incredible!

What do you think of this figure? Do you have a figure you would use in place of this one?Is there a figure you would like me to Spotlight?Leave me a comment here or on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty!

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For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look atHeist: Basic Action Cardfrom the Dungeons and Dragons: Tomb of Annihilation set.

Ruling – Using Action Dice

Heist is a Basic Action Card and it’s dice are Basic Action Dice. If an ability or game text refers to an Action Card or an Action Die, then it could affect Heist. Basic Action Dice can be purchased by either player.

There are two main ways to use an action die. The first is when the die is in your Reserve Pool, you use the ability that’s on the card and then place the die Out of Play. The die will never enter the Field Zone. The second is to move the action die from the Reserve Pool to the Field Zone, but those dice can only be fielded if they have the Continuous keyword, they’re considered to be Gear, or the ability tells you to attach that die to another die that’s in the Field Zone.

Action dice can be used during two different steps, but only on our turn. You can use an action die at any time during your Main Step, or after blockers have been assigned during the Attack Step (referred to as the Actions and Globals portion of the Attack Step).

Action dice cannot be used for no effect. This means, if you can’t legally use the ability of the action die, then you can’t use the die and it remains in your Reserve Pool until the end of your turn. If you do not use an action die, it will go into your Used Pile at the end of your turn.

Ruling – Ability

“Target opponent draws 2 dice from their bag. Place one in that opponent’s Prep Area. Roll the other die and place it in your Reserve Pool. At the end of your turn, place the rolled die in your opponent’s Used Pile (regardless of where it is).“

You must be able to target an opponent in order to use Heist. If you can’t target an opponent, you will not be able to use Heist because it won’t have any effect. When you use Heist, you place the die Out of Play from your Reserve Pool. The die never enters the Field Zone.

When you use Heist, you target an opponent and they draw two dice from their dice bag. If they can’t draw two dice, they draw as many as they can and then refill their bag from their Used Pile, and finish drawing until they have drawn two dice. If they don’t have any dice in their Used Pile to refill their bag, then they draw as many as they can.

If your opponent can only draw one die and doesn’t have any dice to refill their bag with, they do not take damage. ‘Bag Burn’ is only something that applies during the Clear and Draw Step. Also, if your opponent can only draw one die you complete the remainder of the Heist ability in the order stated on the card. This means you would place that single die in your opponent’s Prep Area and not roll it.

When your opponent draws the two dice, you choose one and it is placed in their Prep Area. You then roll the second die and place it in your Reserve Pool. You now get to use that die on the face it landed on. If you rolled energy, you can use it normally. If you rolled an action face, you use it as intended. For example: A Continuous action die will stay in the Field Zone, but the Heist ability will place it in your opponent’s Used Pile at the end of your turn. You get to use it for that turn. The same would happen with a character die if you rolled a character face. You could field that character and activate any When Fielded abilities, but it would be placed in your opponent’s Used Pile at the end of your turn.

If you have an ability that would allow you to reroll or manipulate the dice in your Reserve Pool after the Roll and Reroll Step, those abilities can be used on the die that was stolen with Heist. For example: If you have Parallax: Source of Terror, you can spend one energy to reroll the die you stole with Heist. You could not use an ability that affects dice during the Roll and Reroll Step for the stolen die because Heist is used after the Roll and Reroll Step has passed.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Heist is a Basic Action Card with no energy type.
~ It does not have an affiliation.
~ Heist has a Neutral Alignment (leaf symbol near the purchase cost).
~ It says Use: 3 instead of Max: 3 because you are required to bring exactly three Basic Action Dice for Heist.
~ This card is a Common and is #7 of 136.

Official Sources

Opinion

This card is definitely about more than just potentially stealing some energy. This card can seriously disrupt the flow of your opponent’s bag and also turn an action or character against them for a brief moment. This could also deny them the opportunity to draw that big nasty they had coming next turn. They do get a prepped die from Heist, but I feel like the risk is worth it.

If you don’t get an action or character, you still come out with at least one energy that you can use to make purchases, field characters, activate Globals, etc. I don’t see a huge downside to this card, other than potentially pulling two really good dice and having to put one in your opponent’s Prep Area for next turn. Thinning their bag of Sidekicks is a downside, but it’s not a huge one. Again, the risk is worth the potential reward as long as you’re cautious when using this die. Don’t use it when they have four Sidekicks in their bag and a lot of characters and actions in their Used Pile. You need to keep track of your opponent’s purchases and where the dice are when you play with Heist.

I don’t see this card as a major competitive card, but it’s great for all levels of casual games, and even competitive-casual. Competitive-casual is a mix of competitive and casual play – like a casual setting were everyone is playing semi-competitive, but they don’t bring out the big nasty dudes (like Cube+Pureblood). You also might see someone with a Shriek or a DWiz, but not both. This type of atmosphere breeds creativity and is definitely more fun for folks that don’t dig the hyper competitive scenes, but they still want to play with some of the competitive cards.

I have not looked at this card since the set released, until it popped up as a question from someone. They asked if they could field a character if the die they stole rolled a character face. It’s a tactic that I didn’t think of when I first read the card, but I love the possibilities this card can bring – as well as the chaos that could ensue! I owe that reader a big thank you!

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on? Is there a combo that seems too good to be true? Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!